New on PlayStation Store: Amplitude, Hardware: Rivals, World of Tanks beta, more

Plus, Mike Bithell’s stealth adventure Volume sees a PS Vita release

Happy New Year everyone! Ready to get started on another epic year of gaming? Kicking things off for 2016, we’ve got Amplitude, Trine Trilogy, the second World of Tanks beta weekend and a PS Vita release for Mike Bithell’s acclaimed stealth adventure Volume. That’s not all though – your January PS Plus games are available to download as of today, including intense multiplayer action in the brand new Hardware: Rivals!

If all that’s not enough for you, then check out our January Sale, which continues this week with new savings on great titles across all three platforms.

It would be hilarious if this was another genius plan from Harmonix and Sony to delay the EU release…

Fix the early backer code issue, allow them to get it now without having to redeem via a UK account.
Then fix the regular backer code issue in 2 weeks along with a general release, thus installing the early backer privilege again…

Right, sorry to keep you waiting. Unfortunately there have been some last-minute issues with the Amplitude publish. It will go live in the following regions on 6th January: Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

I will update asap with more information on the publish in countries not listed above. Also, I’m updating the blog post now to reflect this.

Out 6th January ok you win sony il buy it and anyway ps store updates after 12am if games are out 1 or 2 days later so the second amplitude is added im buying it and hitting the like button on it before anyone else 😀

So it seems to be delayed by at least one day, possibly more for players outside of the mentioned regions. Can we at least know a reason for the (yet again) delay on Amplitude?
The lack of communication concerning PSN is sometimes ridiculous.

Why are there always store problems with Harmonix games in Europe? It happens every time without fail. Really don’t trust those guys at these stage, it can’t be SCEE goofing up repeatedly with the same developers when it never happens in the US.

Why does Harmonix dont have problems with releasing stuff on Xbox One ? All the DLC of RB 4 is there. Its a shame Amplitude is an exclusives because if it was on Xbox I could have downloaded it on the original 5 jan date. Microsoft have their stuff more together for worldwide stuff then Sony does.

Fred, is this real? :s Belgium & Netherlands are sending reports to Harmonix since December 23th that codes are not working. How is it possible that Harmonix didn’t request the game for these countries? We’ve contacted Harmonix through Twitter, Facebook, email support, kickstarter, … Everywhere. The only response we get is “We’re looking into the issue with Sony”. I’ve paid 125$ on kickstarter for this game. I even paid for an early access and I still can’t play the game the day after the official release. How is this even possible?

So the EU blog is now for most of the EU but not all? I have been reloading the store all day hoping for Amplitude for Sweden and now there is no release planned at all? How could this happen if Harmonix didnt apply to release it in a bunch of EU countries? Wouldnt you know that and couldnt you have reported it in the news?

Fred do you know of any estimate for the release of Amplitude in the remaining EU countries? Harmonix is staying silent except for a few copy-paste messages and it is getting a bit frustrating for us early kickstarter backers to “stay patient” when everyone else are able to play before us. I’m sure you understand and if we could just get an update on the situation and possibly an estimate of the games release I’m sure we would be able to understand the delay too.

@FredDutton I suggest YOU to contact Harmonix and ask why people on SCEE territories who have paid for the game cannot play the game. Wouldn’t you agree that it’s kind of your job to let people know what is going on in the PlayStation Store? This is what is going on.

Unfortunately the regular sales posts (the posts, not the sales themselves) are on a short-term hiatus. I’m hoping to have them back up and running before January is too old. Apologies for any inconvenience. In the meantime, keep an eye on Twitter (@PlayStationEU) for news on new promotions.

Yeah crimsonidol, i’m one of the few that recommended that site. Everyone should use it, as it even lists games that get “stealth” permanent price cuts. Yeah, there should be a post every time there’s a permanent price cuts (i’m fairly certain they do it in the US blog, but as usual, that’s Europe for us…)

And Fred, could you please re-add (i.e. fix) the “New This Week” tab on the PC store? Been missing for a week or two now. And why some items just can’t be added to the Wishlist? I keep getting a “temporary error”.

World of Tanks Founders Pack 4 is £80?! When did developers think dlc/microtransactions should cost practically double the price of a full game?! I wasn’t that interested in the game anyway, but that has stopped me downloading it already!!

A bit off-topic, but I want to make a list here of PlayStation Plus games that people want to see. It’s been a long generation and many titles already appeared, but sometimes I get the feeling that Sony has a hard time figuring out what to feature.

Google “List of Instant Game Collection games (North America or PAL) Wikipedia to see the entire list throughout history. I can’t link it here because my message will automatically go through moderation. Because there is parity, titles that were only on US PS+ can’t appear on EU PS+ and vice versa.

Reply to this post and make a wishlist featuring PS3, Vita and/or PS4 titles. It will be a good point of reference for members as well as Sony staff.

YES WHERE IS AMPLITUDE it said on harmonix twitter OUT TODAY it better be added today not next week this game i been waiting for ages for this you have fully fixed psn now so add AMPLITUDE NOW if harmonix said amplitude is out 5th January its out 5th January no excuses 1st psn goes down and now no amplitude that should be out 5th January great start to 2016!!!

Sorry i got ott but amplitude means so much to me because it was a great game i only played once on the ps2 and after just reading freds update it should get added any minute now and no mojo man no problems here im just a over exited PlayStation gamer

Could be worse, You could have been a Steam aficionado over Christmas. The truth is the SEN is terrible. It is taking on too many territories (Sorry Australia, I love you but surely you should have your own SCE division) until they are localised we will continue to be subjected to delays and no shows, anyone else remember how great CS:GO was? ah what a great game that could have been. . . Oh and CoolRichy007UK please stop. If this game was such a special part of your life you would still have it and played it more than once.

I haven’t bought it on PS4, and passed it over on discount a couple of times, because I wasn’t 100% convinced that the Vita port was still coming. Now that I know it is I’ll buy, but it would be nice to buy at the 50% discount I didn’t take up previously if at all possible

Bastion had a 75% discount when it launched in Vita – the same level that the PS4 version had previously been cut to – so I snapped it up

I should have had faith, you are quite right… but splashing out for Oddworld New ‘n’ Tasty at the first sniff of a discount has scarred me. 16 months and one PS+ IGC appearance later and there’s still no sign of the Vita version

@Steven – It’s annoying for sure, but New ‘N’ Tasty Vita is coming, I’ve seen it running on a Vita. Oddworld Inhabitants will be meeting with Charlie from The Vita Lounge Team later this month too with it, so we can bring some more news. 😉

Is there any logic to having the Store Update post published on a Tuesday when the majority of games are releasing on either Wednesday or Thursday? I understand that the PS Plus games have moved to the first Tuesday to align both the NA and EU regions, and that games can be released on PSN at any time.

I think it is awesome that we know in advance what is coming, but I think it would be even better to have a weekend ‘Drop’ like post like the US Blog has to let us know what is coming the following week and then post the Store Update and New Sales together as one big update on the Wednesday.

That way we get a bit of weekend reading, we know what is coming in the week and then it saves you guys having to produce two separate posts for both Store updates and Sales, and it also makes it easier for us to find all the week’s new titles/prices in one place.

I certainly see your logic! The honest answer is that the PAL Store is rather more complex than the US Store, due to the 30+ different regions and languages we cater for. Duly, it unfortunately isn’t possible to collate the information in time for the prior weekend. Hence why we publish on the Tuesday – if we published on Wednesday, the games that launch on Tuesday would already be live and it would be old news.

totallly agree, what is the point of saying now we make the store update on tuesday ‘s when most of the game got released 3 days later… and i dont buy the europe being more complicated , it’s sony who made it more complicated, microsoft deals the same platform and release all the same day since the release of 360 on digital… no good excuses from my point of view.

I like the idea of a weekend drop ala the US store, but also understand that due to the extra territories it could be hard to do… I’m sure if Fred was able to employ an unlimited amount of staff to get this done in a timely and accurate fashion then he would.

Personally I much prefer the Tuesday update and posts; as I like to know earlier rather than later. Perhaps those who would prefer them done on Wednesday could just read the Tuesday post on Wednesday as opposed to suggesting the rest of us wait to appease their frankly pathetic requests.

What exactly is Harvest Moon: Back to Nature compatible with? On the webstore, the info box on the left only mentions PS3, but the description says it’s playable on PSP and PS3 — no mention of Vita. I don’t want to buy it only to find it’s inexplicably incompatible with my Vita, the only platform I’m interested in playing it on.

What’s the situation with Rock Band DLC? There’s stuff listed as PS4 (Crushcrushcrush, for example) which can’t be downloaded, there are songs and packs that have downright disappeared for both PS3 and 4 (Days of Peace 01) and just other general issues.

Sony, do you have any news for the European backers (Belgian here) which should’ve receive the early access codes? They still aren’t working when entering them in the Belgian PSN Store, saying it’s an invalid code.
Harmonix said it’s working with Sony to resolve the issue (which was mentioned 2 weeks ago already), but there’s still no progress on this issue.

Also the backers who’ve received their code today are unable to redeem the code “invalid code”.

It’s up to the developers/publishers of the games in question to submit their titles for release in the PAL region. Sony doesn’t develop or publish those titles, so unfortunately I can’t comment on their development status. There are a number of reasons why a game might release in one region before another – localisation, licensing issues, legal issues, limited manpower, etc.

What on earth did you guys do with the New This Week page on the webstore? Even though it was cluttered with theme/avatar shovelware most of the time, it’s still insanely better than having to search through hundreds of different items on the New This Month page.

I can’t believe that people don’t read the blog properly, amplitude is out on the 6th and what date is it today, ermm let me think it’s the 5th. Thanks sony for a great update and all the best for 2016 guys.

You’re forgetting that the game was announced for the 5th and has been promoted to launch on the 5th the last few weeks as well. This is a last-second delay with no communication for a game that a -lot- of people have been longing for, hence the “outrage”.

Why did America get the Vita version of Vita while we’re stuck with the PSP version? I was looking forward to it, then we got screwed with the PSP version and now turns out we’re the only ones getting the PSP variant…

Funny how i actually wrote that before, because someone else ACTUALLY wrote that the Vita game was a US exclusive… it would be sad if they didn’t even know the game they were going to offer. Oh well, nobody would’ve bought a 30€, five years old PSP game.

Funny how i actually wrote that before, because someone else ACTUALLY wrote that the Vita game was a US exclusive… it would be sad if they didn’t even know the game they were going to offer. Oh well, no one would’ve bought a 30€, five years old PSP game.

The PSP version kept the Patton subtitle for both regions, the Vita version dropped the Patton subtitle in EU. But each version is identical with its other region counterpart in content.

I hope was just an error with naming because favouring one region in its PS+ offering is some real BS, and not to sound entitled but we’re paying for the same service as US is, if we’re getting an inferior offering (and yes a PSP version is inferior) I expect something additional to make up for it.

We pay more than the US even when you take into account taxes and the like. And we don’t get half the service they do. No Powers in most places. Terrible sales and discounts. Maintenance done in EU prime time.

Legends of War Patton’s Campaign was originally mistakenly included in January’s Monthly Games. This has now been replaced by History Legends of War. All Plus members, including those who have already downloaded Legends of War Patton’s Campaign, can now download History Legends of War as part of their Monthly Games. History Legends of War is not currently available for our members in Australia, New Zealand and Russia, however we are working to make it available for these regions as soon as possible and will share an update on this in due course.

I wrote on the eu blog comments that they were saying the name of one game and linking another. How come I know when playstation are making a mistake and they don’t? Several people also commented that it’s not in the aus store and now they are surprised?
Can I have a job? I’ll be better at it.
I tweeted it to PlayStation Aus also no response. Luckily blog reader Arkeologen is also on the ball. Would anyone have even noticed otherwise?

If the flag by your name is for the country you are currently in then Amplitude should be live for you tomorrow. I wouldn’t have thought the code would work until then as there is currently no game to redeem right now.

Hi Fred. I’ve got questions for You.
First – what’s going on with Dragon Age: Origins (PS3) for Polish PS+ members? I still can’t download it for free.
Second – I can see some divergence with Legends of War: Patton’s Campaign. First of all – is it really a PSP version? US PS+ members got Vita version with trophies. There’s also some error in description – check this out: “Compatible with PlayStation®Vita only. Not compatible with PlayStation®TV. Compatible with PSP® (PlayStation®Portable), PlayStation®Vita and PlayStation®TV.”.

@store ppl. Montezuma 4 still cant be bought. It gives a transaction error at checkout. Please look into this. I downloaded the demo first. I dont know if that affected it. There are more ppl with this problem and helpdesk couldn’t solve it since it is a store problem.

So, Grim Fandango isn’t on the PS Plus section of the Vita store, but you can download it if you look the game up in the store (at least if you have added the license to your account on the PS4 before, haven’t checked it the other way around).

Could you please tell me why eu igc has an old psp version of patton game and the u s have new vita version of the game, as i thought we were both getting the same now , or will this question get ignored.

Every month you have igc complaints but treating EU igc as second class citizens compared to the US cant be acceptable in the moden IGC i thought this was one reason why we both had the same games now .

That make cry The fact they say “Prepare for another epic year of gaming” And Every month we get bad free games for PLUS, why you Dont keep The good free games? Like in PS3? Common Sony is not difficult to Put Assassin Creed Unity for free for PSN Plus accounts.

It’s funny that you talk about “good free games” and use Assassin Creed Unity as an example. I bought that one at release, and I felt so ripped off that I promised I’d never buy another AC game again (I’ll think about it if they stop doing one game per year and shake things up a bit). AAA doesn’t equal a good game.
I mean, I can see your point, but AC Unity or Knack aren’t good games, even if they’re AAA.

Me and my cousin played Hardware Rivals last night, great little game that looks like it would be amazing with loads of people…but it was just me and him online. We tried all of the different game modes but could only ever find 1 other person to play against (who promptly left as it was 2v1 team deathmatch, i don’t blame him really!).

Did anyone else have this issue? I watched a few streams whilst at work and they all had multiple opponents, but we just spent an hour attacking each other as we had no one else to kill lol